Phonology: The integrity of Chapter 103

Surah (Chapter) 103, which is entirely devoted to polemic, comprises three ayahs of unequal length. Although the third ayah has the same rhyme as the others, it is by far the longest. Moreover, the phraseology of this ayah is characteristic of relatively late revelations. For these reasons most European Scholars (including Noldeke, Bell, Blachere, Paret and Neuwirth) think it must have been added later to introduce an exception to the categorical denunciation in v.2.

Here is the whole surah in transliteration, together with a literal translation:

Impersonal oath
By the late afternoon!

Categorical denunciation
Lo! Humankind is indeed in loss!

Exception clause

Except those who believe

And do good works,

And encourage one another in truth,

And encourage one another in patience/endurance

WaalAAasr

Inna al-insana lafee khusr
Illa allatheena amanoo

waAAamiloo 'ssalihat

watawasaw bi'lhaqq

watawasaw bi'lssabr

The noun ‘aSR is derived from the verb ‘aSaRa, to press or squeeze, which is used in 12.36 and 49 to denote the action of pressing grapes to make wine. From this verse we also get the non-Qur’anic word ‘aSiR, ‘juice’ – so-called because it is extracted by pressing or squeezing fruit. Highly appropriately, the very production of these words requires considerable pressing and squeezing in the throat and the mouth. Use your muscles to tighten your throat and squeeze your larynx before pronouncing a short a. this will give you ‘a. nw press the tip of your tongue against your lower teeth while squeezing the blade up against the teeth ridge to pronounce the emphatic ‘s’ –‘as. Finally, follow this up with a rolled ‘r’ – ‘as.

The precise meaning of ‘asr is disputed. In pre-Islamic times, it sometimes meant ‘age’ or‘destiny’, but here it probably has the sense of ‘late afternoon’. As that is the time of daywhen merchants add up their takings, and when Muslims meet for prayer, the message of the surahwould thus be quite simple: no matter how great their financial profit, human beings are in danger of eternal loss unless they are believers.

Mere belief is not, however, sufficient. What is required is explained in the second half of the third ayah which, phonologically speaking, is squeezed out of the initial oath. The first of thethree consonants of ‘asr recurs at the beginning of ‘amilu; the second recurs no less than six times in the next few words; and the surah ends on the third:

Late afternoon

Do good works, encourage truth and encourage endurance.

‘sr

‘a s’s s s s-s r

I have indicated this by printing all three consonants in bold type (and orange font) in the original transliteration. The extreme length of the third ayah is thus entirely explicable, and there is no need to suppose that it was added later.

Source: Neal Robinson. The Qur'an: A Contemporary Approach to a Veiled Text